What Human Needs Are

"Human needs are a powerful source of explanation of human behavior and social interaction. All individuals have needs that they strive to satisfy, either by using the system, 'acting on the fringes' or acting as a reformist or revolutionary. Given this condition, social systems must be responsive to individual needs, or be subject to instability and forced change (possibly through violence or conflict)."
-- Coate and Rosati, Preface, in The Power of Human Needs in World Society, ed. Roger A.Coate and Jerel A. Rosati, ix. Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner Publishers, 1988.

Humans need a number of essentials to survive. According to the renowned psychologist Abraham Maslow and the conflict scholar John Burton, these essentials go beyond just food, water, and shelter. They include both physical and non-physical elements needed for human growth and development, as well as all those things humans are innately driven to attain.

For Maslow, needs are hierarchical in nature. That is, each need has a specific ranking or order of obtainment. Maslow's needs pyramid starts with the basic items of food, water, and shelter. These are followed by the need for safety and security, then belonging or love, self-esteem, and finally, personal fulfillment. Burton and other needs theorists who have adopted Maslow's ideas to conflict theory, however, perceive human needs in a different way -- as an emergent collection of human development essentials. Furthermore, they contend needs do not have a hierarchical order. Rather, needs are sought simultaneously in an intense and relentless manner. Needs theorists' list of human essentials include:

• Safety/ Security -- the need for structure, predictability, stability, and freedom from fear and anxiety.
• Belongingness/Love-- the need to be accepted by others and to have strong personal ties with one's family, friends, and identity groups.
• Self-esteem -- the need to be recognized by oneself and others as strong, competent, and capable. It also includes the need to know that one has some effect on her/his environment.
• Personal fulfillment -- the need to reach one's potential in all areas of life.
• Identity -- goes beyond a psychological "sense of self." Burton and other human needs theorists define identity as a sense of self in relation to the outside world. Identity becomes a problem when one's identity is not recognized as legitimate, or when it is considered inferior or is threatened by others with different identifications.
• Cultural security -- is related to identity, the need for recognition of one's language, traditions, religion, cultural values, ideas, and concepts.
• Freedom -- is the condition of having no physical, political, or civil restraints; having the capacity to exercise choice in all aspects of one's life.
• Distributive justice -- is the need for the fair allocation of resources among all members of a community.
• Participation -- is the need to be able to actively partake in and influence civil society.

WHY THE CONCEPT OF HUMAN NEEDS MATTERS

Human needs theorists argue that one of the primary causes of protracted or intractable conflict is people's unyielding drive to meet their unmet needs on the individual, group, and societal level. For example, the Palestinian conflict involves the unmet needs of identity and security. Countless Palestinians feel that their legitimate identity is being denied them, both personally and nationally. Numerous Israelis feel they have no security individually because of suicide bombings, nationally because their state is not recognized by many of their close neighbors, and culturally because anti-Semitism is growing worldwide. Israeli and Palestinian unmet needs directly and deeply affect all the other issues associated with this conflict. Consequently, if a resolution is to be found, the needs of Palestinian identity and Israeli security must be addressed and satisfied on all levels.